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Go
along to any commercial cinema in West Yorkshire and the chances
are that on most days of the week the film showing will have originated
in the United States. North Country Pictures, a small independent
company based in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, can only
be congratulated for having the perseverence to get their new film,
the Jealous God, made and into the region's cinemas. It is also
to their credit that the film has been given its first showing in
Elland - the first premiere in the 93-year old history of the town's
Rex Cinema.
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| This
was the first film premiere in the Rex's 93 years! |
Certainly
the premiere was something of an event for the town. On what would
have normally been a quiet afternoon people lined the road outside
the cinema, Coronation Street, to greet members of the cast including
Denise Welch, a "resident" of a similarly named street
across the Pennines. Others hung out of their windows, not quite
sure what was going on, to see the line of vintage cars bringing
the celebrities to the Rex. Quite a few passersby seemed surprised
that anything like this could ever happen in Elland.
Several
people had come along because they had loaned their car, or even
their house, to the filmmakers. And, of course, spotting familiar
places is one of the joys of going to see a movie made around here.
For me it was a scene filmed in the Rex itself, Keighley Railway
Station, the old road above Marsden and that double-decker bus I
keep seeing, which for some unaccountable reason still wears the
livery of the long-gone Halifax Corporation. And, of course, we
can feel a bit clever if we spot what we think is an anachronism.
Why did the producers choose to stage what I took to be a Catholic
funeral outside Heptonstall's octagonal Methodist church?
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| Jason
Merells and Denise Welch arrive at The Rex. This car also starred
in the film! |
But
what of the film itself? It certainly does not set out to be a another
bit of British whimsy. Based on a novel by Bradford author John
Braine, Steven Woodcock's film is a deliberate homage to what came
to be called New Wave cinema. In the late 1950s and early 1960s
films like Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and A Kind Of Loving,
usually book adaptations, seemed to bring a new sort of realism
to the big screen. More often than not they did focus on frustrated,
if not "angry" young men and they may even have shown
the odd kitchen-sink along the way.
One
of the most successful of these films was Room At The Top, based
on John Braine's first and most famous novel, and starring Laurence
Harvey as Joe Lampton. Born in 1922, John Braine was working as
a librarian in Bingley when he wrote Room At The Top. Being confined
to bed in a sanatorium because he had TB had given Braine a chance
to try his hand at writing and eventually he was able to leave both
Bradford and librarianship behind him.
How
many people read John Braine today? A straw poll around the office
suggests he is now completely forgotten. But it is impossible to
talk about The Jealous God without asking if Braine's view of the
world has anything to say to 21st century filmgoers.
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| Marcia
Warren gives a very good performance as Vincent's mother. |
It
is Yorkshire in the 1960s and Vincent (Jason Merrells, aged 30,
is a teacher in a Roman Catholic school and he still lives at home
with his mother. He hasn't ruled out the possibility that he might
yet train as a priest. Then he meets Laura (Mairead Carty), the
new librarian and falls in love but then he finds out Laura is divorced.
Along the way he becomes briefly entangled with his sister-in-law
Maureen (Denise Welch). Like Joe Lampton Vince eventually realises
he can't have everything but by that time the life of another man
has been destroyed...
There
must have been some point in the 1960s when young women stopped
wearing headscarves but it was certainly after the time this film
is set. There is no trace of the Beatles on the soundtrack and Habitat
furniture has yet to make its mark. If this film looks dowdy to
younger members of the audience it's because it does successfully
evoke the period - Britain was on the point of changing from post-war
austerity to a time when people had more money to spend and change
seemed to be in the air.
The
stifling of feelings is echoed in the very design of the film, particularly
in the way catholicism is depicted - the camera lingers on the statues
and the crucifixes in Vince's house. But is this just the background
to the real issue, the relationship between men and women? At one
point Vince seems to be the victim of the women around him, especially
his own over-bearing mother who wants him to become a priest, but
at the end of the film he realises he has caused the death of another
man. This same incident brings his mother (a very good performance
by Marcia Warren) together and somehow Vince seems to be the one
left out in the cold. We realise that Vincent's mother is not the
monster we had thought, but in the film's last line she talks about
the "cold breath" of a "stepmother."
As
the closing credits roll we do not immediately step back into the
world of 2005 because, after all, this is the Rex and there is Dr
Arnold Loxam on the organ playing the National Anthem.
Chris Verguson
The
Yorkshire Charity Premiere (in support of Overgate Hospice, Elland)
of The Jealous god took place at the Rex Cinema on Wednesday, September
7th, 2005.
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